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Cluttered House Entry Way Confession: Simple Organizing Book Giveaway

Of course our homes don’t need to be perfect for hospitality, and mine never is. Today I’m sharing my Cluttered House Entryway Confession (and how I organized it), along with Melissa Michael’s new book, Simple Organizing, 50 Ways to Clear the Clutter, plus a $250 Container Store giveaway!

Friends, we miss so many opportunities when we stress about the stuff around us. I think it’s a heart attitude, and sometimes it just takes a focus adjustment. I love to throw a party with all the bells and whistles, but when it comes down to it, I’m just trying to make an enjoyable time for my friends. So when things don’t go quite right, I don’t get stressed, I figure I gave everyone else permission to not be perfect, and God gave me an opportunity to stay humble. :o)

Cluttered house

As for our homes, the structure and discipline of keeping my home somewhat organized and clean helps my hosting go much better. But I’m telling you here today (hand raised high), things get out of control. FAST. I do at times have a cluttered house! And when last-minute entertaining happens, or people just drop in, I have to go with the flow and be flexible!

Simple Organizing, 50 Ways to Clear the Clutter, by Melissa Michaels, is a new book about simple ways we can pare down and organize what we need in our home. This book showed up just in time this past week, and it’s available to order today!

Too much stuff out of place causes us to feel disorganized, which leaves us feeling stressed.

I’ve told my hubby for a long time, we need to do something about this! HA. Don’t you love how I put it on him?

He built me a new box to slide under the bench, to hold all the miscellaneous stuff, and it just took a little organizing to get it whipped into a fresh, new look! I’ve used Melissa’s cleaning and organzing tips before in my home, so I can’t recommend this book enough.

After … awh. SO much nicer! Oh, and that’s Alder the Whoodle (who’s now 9 months old!) And if you want to view more of our Mountain Home, you can browse through all my posts!

Simple Organizing Book Launch

Melissa’s book, Simple Organizing, 50 Ways to Clear the Clutter, isn’t about making everything perfect though. It’s about taking action in simple ways to make your home serve your needs. It’s not about creating perfect order or Instagram-worthy spaces, but rather creating a home that inspires us, and works for our needs. Amen to that.

I want to have people over all the time, but sometimes I have to let go of my “clean house” expectations.

Friends, get this book! It will not only inspire you to create more order (spring cleaning is here!), but it’s also a great gift idea.

Book Giveaway

Today I’m giving away a copy of Simple Organizing.

All you have to do is tell me (comment below) your clutter confession?

One of my biggest clutter areas is my desk. I am list maker so I have piles of papers, books and so on stacked up around my desk.. I have tried to keep the papers in baskets or file them but they usually end up stacked by my calendar. Yes I use a good old paper calendar to keep track of things.

The clutter areas in our home are a few. One of them is the guest room/craft room. I knit and well I have bins with yarn in them. The kitchen is a small galley without much cabinet space so we have a bakers rack with a lot of the gadgets we use when making food on it plus cookbooks. There is very little storage space in our place.

The peninsula counter in the kitchen is where all the mail, magazines and other assorted items seem to collect. I clean it off and then it’s a mess again in a few days. It stresses me out when I see it and it often feels hopeless. Hopefully, I can get some good tips from Melissa’s book.

My closet is a catch-all for clothes, many of which I haven’t worn for more than two years, and gifts. I tuck them away for people throughout the year. So my closet is overflowing with all of this stuff!

My husband is an avid reader. When he finishes a book he sets it aside to be paced in a storage box. That storage box then goes into the garage. The garage fills up with boxes of books. I also have a cookbook collection of my own. There doesn’t seem to be a practicable place to keep the books we want to hang keep.

Clutter seems to just invade at times. I work hard at getting everything in order and the next thing I know it has crept back in. It is sneaky how that seems to work. One of my goals is to simplify and perhaps it will be easier to maintain wonderful, peaceful order. Fewer messes, fewer stresses.

The master bedroom always seems to come last. It should be treated like my sanctuary, right? Instead, it turns into a dumping ground for the piles of clutter I don’t want my guests to see. I am ready to fight for my space and begin living intentionally.

We have a cabinet in the entryway from the garage. It used to be one of this big computer cabinets with the fold-down desk, but now I use it to stash all the tings we’re carrying when we walk in the door. It’s become such a black hole over the past few years!

OK I am a former teacher, stampin up demonstrator, and a Pampered Chef consultant, You CANNOT believe how much clutter I have!!!!! As a Pre K teacher you NEED to save everything!! I need ALL the help I can get. I just LOVE your blog Sandy and try many of your recipes!!! Didn’t you do Pampered Chef too? So ALL those cookbooks were business expenses! But I still need over 300????

Right now you can hardly even walk into our house because it’s Saturday morning and yesterday when everyone arrived home from the end of the work/school week, everything got dropped at the door….shoes, backpacks, art projects, jackets, instruments etc. Sometimes my “go to” for people coming over is to simply host an outdoor event! Ha! Then I just ignore the clutter and enjoy the beautiful outdoors and company of friends.

My cluttered area is my pantry. In my mind I have it divided into specific areas, but it is no where close to being decluttered. I need to go through it and throw out all expired items, and then get some baskets and reorganize it.

My clutter is papers & books. I save bills, receipts, manuals, etc. I finally shredded all my prior to 2000 papers when I moved. I’m building up my book collection since so many are no longer in print due to ebooks. Then there are the technical computer books. And my music CDs. The list goes on.

I try to keep our downstairs clutter-free, and most of upstairs (although I have a teenage son & his room is frequently a disaster area!). But I have a craft room off our bedroom…and it’s too easy to just close the door. So that one gets VERY cluttered…with no apologies!

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Welcome!

Welcome to my home and table! I'm Sandy-lover of food, family, cooking, travel, simple hospitality, and bringing people together. Feasting on Life is when guests come empty-handed, or with a dish, and they bring their story. It all begins the moment we open our door (and hearts). Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more.